FRENCH READER BY LOUIS A. ROUX, A.B. OFFICIER D'ACADÉMIE; MASTER IN FRENCH, NEWARK ACADEMY, New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1919 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1916. AIMOLIAD Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. PREFACE IN preparing this elementary French reader, I have kept constantly in mind the needs of beginners. Great care has been taken to select material that will be interesting to the pupils and at the same time provide them with a vocabulary of every-day French. The selections are carefully graded. The first few are so simple in thought and language that they can be read at the very beginning of the course. Most of the texts are from well-known French authors. I have not hesitated to simplify them whenever it seemed best in order to meet the requirements of a first French reader. I have ventured to offer prose adaptations of three of La Fontaine's fables, with the hope that students will thus become better acquainted with those little gems of literature. The poems at the end of the book have been added for memorizing. I wish to call attention to the following special features of the book: I. The first seven stories are so short that they can be read very quickly and reviewed easily. The same words and expressions have been repeated frequently. 2. Tenses are introduced gradually. The present indicative and imperative are the only tenses used in the first three selections. The other tenses are introduced gradually. The past definite, or preterit, appears for the first time on page 26. There are but few subjunctives in the whole book. 460009 |